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Materials Science

Many of you would know I am a trained accountant. Most would not know that my original training was in science and engineering. It’s that aspect of my life the I would like to write about now.

All of you would however be familiar with the concept of interest rates. A nightly topic on the news, interest rates determine how much spare cash we have after the mortgage payment. And the total mortgage paid is a simple calculation. To save time, I’m going to skip the math… but the formula is:

FV = PV(1+r)^t

Where:

FV = Future value

PV = Present Value

r = Interest Rate

t = time

its the formula for calculating the total amount you pay – and, (just like me), its not very sexy!

Graphene is a form of Carbon and is derived from graphite. Scientist have long suspected that Graphene possessed amazing qualities. And although they knew that graphite consisted of stacks of “graphene sheets”, most thought it impossible to retrieve a single sheet.

That was until two physicists at Manchester University began playing with sticky-tape and graphite. In 2004 Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov simply adhered sticky-tape to a block of graphite and removed it. What they discovered was amazing. And they won a Nobel prize for their efforts.

Micro-flakes of graphene. Incredibly thin with the Carbon atoms arranged in a perfect honeycomb pattern.

Fun Facts about Graphene

One sheet of Graphene is just one atom thick. A sheet the size of a football field would weigh less than a gram.

Graphene is 200 times stronger than steel and harder than diamond.

It would take three million sheets to make a stack 1mm high.

A sheet one atom thick is sturdy enough to be picked up

It conducts electricity better than copper or silicon.

It can be bent, folded or rolled. It is so strong that Colombia University estimates it would take a pressure equivalent to an elephant balanced on a pencil to break through a layer of graphene as thick as plastic food rap.